Women Rule panel: ‘Women matter’ on economy

“I’m here today for lots of reasons, but one is I love the title Women Rule, because women in power really does lead to, we think, more effective outcomes,” Gordon Mills said. “I think it’s because women in power can really get together and ask the question, ‘What is the outcome we’re trying to achieve?’ … You know that there’s an objective out there that you’re trying to get to and that is what moves the world forward and prevents logjams.”

In a conversation that focused on how to empower women to achieve their goals, members of the panel endorsed getting involved in mentoring and investing in female entrepreneurs.

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Executive Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank Julie T. Katzman told a personal story about arriving to a job and asking if there were any women on staff, only to be presented with a low-level employee. She said when she encouraged the company to hire women, they saw immediate results. She talked of disabusing Americans of the notion that women are on the fringe of business.

“Women are not a niche,” Katzman said. “It’s 50 percent of the population!”

The same principles used to get more women into business could also be applied to getting more into politics, the panel said.

One of the takeaways for Goldman Sachs Foundation President Dina Habib Powell from her work is that women in business start small, but then see their business grow.

The next Women Rule event will feature U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power in November, followed by a December conference on leadership. Additionally, Women Rule is running an online hub of essays.